BABE!:


Random thought: how come in Nollywood movies, when Jim Iyke comes back to Nigeria from England(after living there all his life), he ends up getting an American accent? ? ?  

ezeagu:

The fact that we can tell the persons accent is fake usually means the persons accent sound unattractive and unnatural. If you're not an American, don't force it. It's embarrassing.

coogar:

his neighbours in england are all americans!

Anvaller:

If you would observe, a Nigerian who is being interviewed on eg CNN or BBC speaking the typical Nigerian accent would have his comments re subtitled in English (most especially in special documentaries) because they think the quality of his accent is not clear enough to be understood by all English listeners around the world. Whereas, another Nigerian whose spoken English is may be not completely American or British but that has a relative influence of any of those accents on the way he speaks would not be re-subtitled because it is assumed that his spoken english is clear enough to be understood by all english listeners across the globe.

BABE!:

LOL-- Hilarious thread!

Everyone should calm down jo   ----Kini big deal? I don't have problem with people faking accents. As long as you sound normal, and people can hear you clearly.
I have a problem with people trying way too hard ("to be cool", and at the end of the day, end up sounding Ridiculous! In fact, I don't have a problem with them, rather, they make me laugh.


Random thought: how come in Nollywood movies, when Jim Iyke comes back to Nigeria from England(after living there all his life), he ends up getting an American accent? ? ?  

Kellymann:

You hit the nail on the head! A greater percentage of everyone here at one time or the other have been guilty of this 'crime', so let no one be claiming 'holy pass' here. The issue is since English is our official language, some people strive hard to speak it like the English man does and in the process end up overdoing it.

If u want to speak English like the Englishman, which is actually the standard spoken English, if u dont know how the Englishman pronounces some words, use your own tongue to pronounce it how best you can instead of allowing affectation to start making u sound like an  even to yourself. Our local accent cant be that bad. Other African countries have their own accented way of speaking English too, the South Africans for example speak English with a very heavy accent and they are cool with it.

Make we no kill ourselves over one yeye accent jawe!

Anvaller:

Babe, this is what I want to make clear. It is wrong to say someone is faking accent. When u are trying to speak in an accent, u have only two options. U either know how to speak in such accent or not. If someone can speak in a given accent very well then he is not faking it, he is speaking it. If u are not able to speak in the accent u are trying to claim very well and thereby speaking rubbish instead, u are not faking it, rather u dont know how to speak it.

What you can tell me is that someone is faking being American/British (whereas he is not) because he is able to speak in American/British accent. I can understand that. But faking accent its a common expression in Naija but its counter-logic.

otumfour (m)GHANA« #17 on: Today at 02:08:10 PM »:

and they say Ghanaian's be faking they accent Huh, U these "SHON SHON" people, SMH! Nigerians sef.

Ghanaians do not fake their accent,the problem with their english is the  twi, fante and other local tongue buried in their english.

otumfour (m)GHANA« #17 on: Today at 02:08:10 PM »:

and they say Ghanaian's be faking they accent Huh, U these "SHON SHON" people, SMH! Nigerians sef.

deekay29:

@ OP
I understand your pain, i turn off the radio anytime i visit Naija and hear these heifers trying to imitate Americans, and i always say even with all them forming, they will be humbled when they open their mouths to speak that thing they call American Accent and the first question they get is where arew you from  

Me, i wont say i haven't tried to form o, but i do it with only Yankee peeps, hence dey keep doing that annoying "Huh" when i use my naija accent. But with my naija peeps i hate the forming, and chicks wey dey here wey i don toast or dey toast will tell you that the first thing i say is please, enuf of the accent thing lets flow like Nigerians, if we end up together will we form for each other till we die? might as well be real

amblors:

^^^ you imply that anything LEARNED is faked?

Nope. Using the word "innate" doesn't necessarily mean I came from heaven with my Nigerian accent. I kinda had to learn it too; however, THAT IS MY ACCENT.

My vocabulary is kinda jacked up, so pardon me.

aribisala0:

there is no such thing as standard spoken english .
if you live in america,canada or the UK you are likely to mimic the accent local to where you live especially if you have little contact with nigerians it is a speech variant of the phenomenon known as  ECHOPRAXIA but is mild and quite different from accent faking and does not involve the adoption of outrageous  lower class slang.
probably motivated by a desire to sound intelligible to local listeners. however there is a clear nigerian accent which is internationally intelligible and was used by some older newsreaders on NTA like cyril  stober or wole soyinka who speaks with a clearly nigerian accent.

omo_to_dun:

Wassup my niggaz? What's popping, y'all? I just had to join this discussion mehn. U know what I mean, mehn. I just came back from the hospiru and ma doctor advised me to drink plenty of warra cos ma body fluid is low, mehn. By the way, I gots work to do, I berra start. My dear BABE, what is popping, mehn?

Anvaller:

I agree with the poster on this issue because presenters in Nigeria dont know what they are doing. It is irritating when u hear these horrible accents, its very shameful. But I beg to differ a bit with others here on this issue. Please when we criticize, we must know how to separate the wheat from th chaffs. Some are just criticizing but they themselves dont even know what a good accent should sound like.

Many Nigerians go ahead and run a fellow Nigerian down because he speaks in british or American accents. Where as, a lot of factors could be responsible for this and so dont be quick to call someone fake when u observe this. As long as any one speaks an accent well, puts the right stress on the right syllable, sounds clear and sharp enough, I dont think there is any justification for running such person down by calling him fake. The point is that the person has mastered a language beyond the grammar and vocabulary by speaking it in the accent of the native speaker. So why would u call such person fake? We must bear it in mind that in International Language Tests, U are tested for reading, writing, listening and Speaking (and this is the where the accent issue comes in) a Nigerian who took a speaking test with a perfect (not horrible) British or american accent would score a significantly higher mark than another Nigerian who of course also speaks good english but with a typical Nigerian accent.

If you would observe, a Nigerian who is being interviewed on eg CNN or BBC speaking the typical Nigerian accent would have his comments re subtitled in English (most especially in special documentaries) because they think the quality of his accent is not clear enough to be understood by all English listeners around the world. Whereas, another Nigerian whose spoken English is may be not completely American or British but that has a relative influence of any of those accents on the way he speaks would not be re-subtitled because it is assumed that his spoken english is clear enough to be understood by all english listeners across the globe. I am only trying to give a reason why we can not just be castigating from a blanket view. The Poster raised th issue of horrible accented presenters, we shouldnt take it over to other Nigerians who have refined their spoken English even up to the accents.

For your information, White ppl also do these and they dont call themselves fake.  Its a common thing to see a German or Swedish for example speaking not only good english but in the british accent and when you wonder if he was birtish, he would tell you that "no I have never lived in britain for any long time but I simply picked up the accent because I have a british girlfriend" in cases like this, they xpect a complement from the enquirer like "wow u must be a genius to have mastered the accent this much just because of your girlfriend"  the enquirer wont say "haaa u are fake, why not speak in German accent?"

So we need to understand these things. Castigate only those who are mocking english by speaking horrible accents and do not include those who have mastered it perfectly well.

Thanks.

BABE!:

lol--- See how you "attacked" me like we've had a discussion/argument prior this thread.

Well, there is something like faking an accent. If an accent is not yours (if it's not innate), you talking in it (either wrongly or rightly) means you're faking it. You can fake it convincingly-- it's still faking.

Plus, the phrase "faking an accent" is not a Nigerian thing; it's a common expression everywhere.

amblors:

Anvaller you dey vex oh!
but u spit the truth like a catholic in the confession booth